Cathryn_Conroy

It's summer on the picturesque island of Capri where we are cavorting, sailing, swimming, and partying with the rich and famous…and possibly the murderous. Oh, this mystery-thriller gave me chills that no hot summer sun could warm because evil lurks in this luxurious paradise.

Written by Katy Hays this is the complicated story of the incredibly wealthy Lingate family, who annually summer for one week in Capri. In July 1992, tragedy struck the family and island when Sarah, the wife of the younger brother Richard and mother of three-year-old Helen, fell to her death from the rugged cliffs that surround most of the island. A lengthy investigation was unable to determine if her death was a murder, accident, or suicide.

Even so, the family has always insisted on returning to Capri and staying in the same opulent villa. As Helen grew up she became best friends with Ciro, the son of the villa's housekeeper Renata. Renata had been close to Sarah, knowing she was different from the rest of them. Before she married Richard, Sarah was a successful, up-and-coming playwright in New York City. Soon after her marriage, the paranoid, highly insular family made sure she never wrote again. Until one day…she did. In secret. The result was a play titled "Saltwater," but after her husband read it, he called the attorneys to make sure it would never be mounted on any stage anywhere because Sarah had written about Lingate family. Years later when Helen was in college, she gave an interview to someone she thought of as a friend, but she was betrayed…and the Lingates essentially put her under house arrest forevermore. The Lingates always say "no comment."

Fast forward 20 years. Helen and the rest of the Lingates—her remote Uncle Marcus and her alcoholic/pill-popping Aunt Naomi, along with her controlling father Richard, and her boyfriend Freddy—have once again arrived on Capri. This year, Lorna, Marcus's assistant and Helen's good friend, has accompanied them for the first time. Lorna and Helen are up to no good, having created a blackmail plot so they can both get their hands on some Lingate money. Just as the investigation into Sarah's death is reopened thanks to new evidence, another body turns up, but this time it's hauled out of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Lingates are shrouded in secrets and tragedy, and everything is about to be exposed.

Author Katy Hays is masterful. She has written a complex, multilayered plot that bounces back and forth not only in time, but also among the characters. Yes, it's a soap opera, it's a delicious, pager-turner soap opera!

The suspense builds ever so slowly until the unexpected twists and turns grip the reader in a sinister and chilling reveal that is truly surprising.

From the blushing, young "Shy Di" to the heartbreaking "England's Rose," Princess Diana was an unlikely person to take on the formidable royal family traditions and forever change them. Her story is iconic and one we (mostly) know. From riding in the golden carriage for her fairytale wedding to Prince Charles to her tragic death that haunted a grief-stricken world, Diana Spencer's life story reads more like a novel than a biography.

Tina Brown, British-American journalist and magazine editor, took on the big task in the writing of this book—one of many, many, many books on the princess. She tells Diana's life story, separating fact from fiction, truth from rumors, and actualities from mythology.

The book begins and ends with the story of Diana's death, the events that led up to it, the role of the paparazzi, the medical care she received on the scene of the crash deep in a Paris tunnel, the reactions of the royal family—from the queen to Prince Philip to Prince Charles to William and Harry—and the unprecedented reactions of the British public.

But the book is more than that. Find out about:
• Diana's troubled childhood, including the histrionics of her parents' divorce and her relationship with her two older sisters and younger brother.

• Her education—or startling lack thereof.

• Her dreamlike, fairytale vision she always had of marrying a prince, and the machinations she undertook to make that dream come true. (Did you know that Diana's older sister, Sarah, dated Prince Charles, but following a serious blunder she was left weeping alone?)

• All about the wedding! The details from the engagement, her deep love for Charles, the dress, her friends' reactions, her family's lack of support, and the interference from Prince Philip that made the whole thing happen.

• All about Camilla Parker-Bowles! She was key in helping Charles choose Diana as his wife and was just as key in breaking up the marriage.

• Diana's suffering as a new bride, the birth of her sons, and the trials and tribulations of bulimia.

• Her eventual sense of "superstar entitlement" and how this impacted her everyday life.

• How she handled and manipulated the paparazzi from the time she was rumored to be Charles's girlfriend to the time of her death.

• Details of day-to-day royal life.

• How Prince Charles was desperately caught between Diana's expectations of him as her husband and the queen's expectations of his duty as the prince of Wales. Spoiler alert: Charles was in a no-win situation.

• How Charles was threatened very early on by Diana's extreme popularity and the formidable and crushing impact this had on their marriage.

• How clever, smart Diana "won" big time in the divorce wars. It was Diana vs. the palace…and (shockingly) Diana was the decided victor.

• She only had one year to live after her divorce from Charles, but Diana made that year count. Find out all she did worldwide that had a lasting impact that not only eased human suffering, but also helped save countless lives.

Even though we all know how this story begins and ends, this book is still a page-turner thanks to Tina Brown's excellent writing, savvy sources, and ability to sort out what really happened vs. all the tabloid gossip. While she is sympathetic to Diana, she also honestly portrays many of the princess's less-than-honorable actions, maneuvers, foibles, and decisions in an open manner. It's a balanced interpretation of a glamorous and troubled life.

Bonus: The end of the book features several iconic photos of Diana, including the shot in front of the nursery school when her skirt became see-through, the engagement photo, wedding photos, and lovely pictures of her sons.

Is there anything more consuming of our stray thoughts than past lovers? Four single African women, three of whom live in the United States and one of whom lives in Abuja, Nigeria, each remembers the men in their lives whom they once loved and then lost—their dream count. This poignant, masterfully written novel by award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a book to which all women—no matter their race—will relate.

• Chiamaka, the only daughter in a fabulously wealthy Nigerian family, lives in the United States and works (without making much money) as a freelance travel writer. When the Covid pandemic hits in 2020, her almost frantic international travels cease, and she spends the quiet time in her Maryland home remembering many failed love affairs.

• Zikora, an attorney in Washington, D.C., is Chiamaka's best friend. It took a long time, but Zikora finally fell in love with the perfect man. Well, he was perfect until Zikora got pregnant…and he immediately fled. Now she is a single mother, filled with resentment and a broken heart, blaming past boyfriends for stealing her time.

• Omelogor, Chiamaka's cousin, lives in Abuja, Nigeria. She is tough, forthright, and opinionated. She is also a huge success in business, although much of it is dishonest and illegal, earning her enormous wealth and prestige. After leaving a high-level banking job, she runs a website called "For Men Only" where she parcels advice about dating, love, and sex. But after an offhand comment from her Aunty Jane, who called Omelogor's life empty because she isn't married and a mother, she is seriously questioning who she is and what she stands for.

• Kadiatou, Chiamaka's housekeeper, has a teenaged daughter, Binta, whom she is raising alone. Binta's father died before he even knew his new wife was pregnant. Her childhood best friend, Amadou, helped her escape from an oppressive situation in Guinea and move to New York. Although they intended to marry, Amadou was caught selling marijuana and received a long prison sentence in faraway Texas. Kadiatou is proud of all she does, especially when she gets a job as a hotel maid. All is well until one day a French VIP guest rapes her as she is cleaning his room. The case goes viral internationally with Kadiatou's identity revealed where she is devoured online by rapacious strangers who know only the barest facts of what really happened. (If it sounds familiar, it's because it's based on a similar, real-life case inspired by Nafissatou Diallo.)

This is a book about friendship, love, heartbreak, and the reverberations of the choices we make in life when our dreams, especially for marriage and motherhood, don't come true. But it is always the sisterhood of friendship that abides throughout the years, offering grounding and solace.

With vividly drawn characters that pop off the page, this remarkable and sophisticated novel is an emotionally searing story of the human heart.

This is an all-consuming novel. It is haunting. When I stopped reading to do something mundane, such as make dinner, I couldn't stop thinking about it. When I fell asleep at night, I dreamt about it—and it was not always a good dream.

Masterfully written by Maggie O'Farrell, this is the multilayered story of an obscure Italian duchess named Lucrezia de' Medici. Taking place in 1560 in Renaissance Italy, she is summarily married against her will at age 15 to Alfonso II d'Este, the duke of Ferrara, Modena, and Reggio, and off she goes—barely out of her girlhood—from her loving family in Florence to a formidable castle in Ferrara.

This is not a spoiler because it's revealed on page one: Lucrezia dies less than a year after her marriage, ostensibly of "putrid fever" (what physicians would now define as pulmonary tuberculosis), but rumors immediately surfaced that she was poisoned by her husband.

When I describe this as "masterfully written," I mean it. The book alternates chapters between Lucrezia's last days of life when she suspects Alfonzo is trying to murder her and the first 15 years of her life. The fifth child and third daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence and Eleanor of Toledo, she was unlike her siblings. Instead of being pliant and obedient, she is daring, defiant, and determined, thriving on adventure and risk-taking. Her own mother describes her as "intractable" and "savage."

Lucrezia's older sister, Maria, was supposed to have married Alfonzo, but Maria died of a lung infection, and at age 12, Lucrezia was unhappily betrothed to the duke.

After they are married, the duke commissioned a portrait of his bride to be painted by the Italian artist Il Bastianino, something Alfonso called the marriage portrait. The book's title comes from this, but it is also an intriguing and witty double entendre in that the novel is also a portrait of this troubled and dysfunctional marriage.

Lucrezia quickly realizes that despite Alfonzo's loving words and his pledge to never hurt her, he and his men are malicious sadists who must always be in control—physically and psychologically—of all those around them. They achieve this through a reign of terror that even touches Alfonzo's sister, Elisabetta, in a most horrific way. And it's not too much longer that Alfonzo turns his heartless and hateful eyes on his very young bride, turning this novel into a psychological thriller.

The power of the book and the magnificent writing is that we, the readers, are transported back in time to Renaissance Italy to almost become part of this haunting, tragic story. You will learn what is expected of women—even strong, determined women like Lucrezia—in a society that devalues them. Crossing those boundaries will always result in punishment. And sometimes that punishment is severe.

With vivid and bold characters, a plot that never lets up, and prose that reads almost like poetry, this is a book to be treasured. It is literature at its finest, but it's also a captivating and provocative page-turner.

So it's history, right? We know what's coming because we were told on the first page. Well, don't be too sure because there are some surprising twists and turns for a most unexpected ending.

Oh, this book made me cry. And smile…and a few times, I even laughed. This is the deeply sad—but also honest and hopeful—memoir of a widow in the days, weeks, months, and years after her beloved's untimely and unexpected death.

Geraldine Brooks met her husband Tony Horwitz at Columbia University in the early 1980s when they were both studying for a master's in journalism. She is a native of Sydney, Australia, and he is a native of Chevy Chase, Maryland. They married in 1984, and had two sons. They had a storybook life. Throughout their more than three decades of marriage, they were very much in love. They also had professional success, each winning a Pulitzer Prize—she for fiction in 2006 and he for national reporting in 1995.

It was on Memorial Day, May 27, 2019, when Tony was 60 and on a grueling book tour to promote his latest book, "Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide," that he collapsed on a sidewalk on the border between Maryland and Washington, D.C. just blocks from his childhood home. He died instantly. And for Geraldine, who was at their home on Martha's Vineyard at the time, life forever changed.

This is her story. Her story of this profound, heartrending loss. Her story of grieving and learning to live again. Her story of managing all the complex tasks—from taxes to health insurance to credit cards—that Tony had always taken care of and about which she knew nothing. Her story of escaping three years later to the extremely remote Flinders Island, northeast of Tasmania, Australia, so she could properly grieve for Tony.

Written with grace and aplomb, this is a story of a deep, abiding love and the wrenching emotions that occur when it all ends. It's a story of hope, of living again even when you think that's not quite possible. It's a book that will resonate with anyone who is in love, and it will make all readers truly appreciate the here and now.

When Tony died, Brooks was writing her acclaimed novel "Horse," but she was struggling with it. She says that he believed in the book more than she did, but she wanted to finish writing it just so she could dedicate it to her beloved. This is the dedication, and it gave me goosebumps when I read it the first time in 2022, just as it does now:
FOR TONY
It will be the past and we'll live there together. –Patrick Philips, "Heaven"

Is erudite ChickLit a genre? Even if it's not, this is the best way to describe this surprising book by Alison Espach about a hoity-toity six-day (!) wedding in posh Newport, Rhode Island. But this is so much more than champagne bubbles; this book has real substance.

Smart and studious Phoebe Stone has a PhD in 19th-century literature. She is an adjunct college English professor at a university in St. Louis with minimal hope for promotion to a real position. Phobe is still reeling from multiple failed IVF treatments and a divorce two years ago from her cheating husband, Matt, a philosophy professor at the same college. She is clinically depressed and even her therapist isn't much help. At 40 years old, Phoebe has lost all hope so she makes a shocking decision: She will travel to a posh hotel in Newport and die by suicide. On the second day of classes for the fall semester, she just skips out without telling anyone and flies to the East Coast.

When Phoebe arrives at the opulent 19th century hotel, the place is surprisingly mobbed. The check-in line feels miles long. It's a Tuesday! What is going on? What is going on is a wedding—a six-day, $1 million wedding. Lila, 28, is marrying Gary, 40, a widower with an 11-year-old daughter who is nicknamed Juice. Lila is rich (very, very rich) and spoiled (very, very spoiled). She has bought out the hotel—or so she thought. When she realizes that Phoebe is not only not a wedding guest, but also has snagged the penthouse suite with the best view of the ocean, she is upset. But that is nothing compared to how she feels when Phoebe lets her know her unsettling plans. Phoebe would turn Lila's wedding into a crime scene!

It's not a spoiler to say that although Phoebe tries to die by suicide, she fails. (It's not a spoiler because that is the whole point of the book.) And that failure has given her a new way of viewing her life. She shouldn't be here…but she is. If Phoebe is not going to die, then Phoebe is going to live in a whole new way. And with that decision, everything changes. Lila finds that Phoebe is the only one who will be honest with her. Gary realizes that he can confide in Phoebe, who will really listen to him. Phoebe embraces "the wedding people" as she calls them, and they in turn embrace her—changing all their lives.

For me, two things made this novel so special that it rose far above standard summer ChickLit to become smart and bookish ChickLit:
1. There are many intelligent and even eloquent discussions of various psychological and emotional matters with smart insights and understandings.

2. This is a literary dream come true. As an English professor and a lifelong avid reader, Phoebe throws out book titles and even mini-analyses of several of them. I kept track of the books cited in the novel, and it's a fun booklist: "Jane Eyre," by Charlotte Bronte; T.S. Eliot poems; "Moby-Dick," by Herman Melville; John Donne poems; "Leaves of Grass," by Walt Whitman; "Mrs. Dalloway," by Virginia Woolf; "Sonnets," by William Shakespeare; "The House of Mirth," by Edith Wharton; "Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain; "Emma" and "Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen; and Dante's "Inferno."

This is a wonderful, insightful book with a poignant and often hilarious storyline, memorable characters, and a big fat can't-miss-it message: Live life to the fullest!

Trigger Warning: Suicide is a prominent plot point, and this could be a trigger for many. Read with caution if this is you.

This short novel is astounding in its depth of understanding of the human psyche. And that might just be because author Jane Campbell was 82 years old when the book was published.

This is the story of three people whose lives intersect in startling, joyful, and tragic ways. Each one tells his or her story in the first person in alternating chapters:
• Professor Malcom Miller: Now retired from his position as a professor of the Old Testament, Malcolm is a self-described "crusty old bachelor" comfortably living in a care home in Oxford. When he was 20 years old in 1946, his beloved sister, Sophy, tragically died along with her husband in an automobile accident. The day before, Malcolm had visited Sophy and Kurt to pick up their four-year-old daughter, Agnes. Uncle Mally and Agnes took the train back to his parents' home, while Sophy and Kurt enjoyed a night alone. The next day they drove the car…and died. Malcolm has not only been filled with grief over Sophy's death, but also filled with guilt. She had given him a very personal letter to deliver, but he never did. Some 50 years later, he still has it. What will happen if he reveals its shocking contents?

• Dr. Joseph Conrad Bradshaw: Now 80 years old, Joe has spent his life as a serial adulterer. Although he enjoyed a stellar career as a psychotherapist, he can't seem to find peace and solace in his personal life. Marry, cheat, divorce. Rinse and repeat. One of his patients over the years was Agnes, and he immediately felt a connection to her that he never did with any of his other patients—a connection so deep that he becomes obsessed with her. When Agnes's daughter, Elfie, marries, Joe is at the small wedding—only 11 people—and he meets Agnes again after all these years.

• Dr. Agnes Josephine Stacey: Agnes, who is in her 50s, is an Oxford professor who is lonely and deeply distrusting of other people. At one point she says that her life has been predicated on never belonging to anyone. This attitude was no doubt caused by two horrific events: The deaths of her parents when she was four years old and her marriage (and subsequent divorce) to Richard, who physically abused her.

The book has two big events at which the players all gather: Elfie's wedding to Theo, which takes place at Richard's opulent home where Agnes has never felt safe, and then the christening a year later of Elfie and Theo's daughter, Josephine. Secrets are kept and revealed and almost destroy their lives. But this is so much more than plot. Campbell has a deft and remarkable touch in examining how each of the main three characters feels when life's bombshells explode around them.

This a wise and tender novel about love, loss, and redemption.

OMG! This is one of those pressure-cooker psychological thrillers that just slowly builds and builds and builds until the chilling, appalling ending. Oh, this is a good book.

Written by Jean Hanff Korelitz, this is the story of frustrated novelist Jacob Finch Bonner. Jake published his first book to critical acclaim, although that didn't translate into significant book sales. His second book was a total flop. Now he is heading to Ripley College, a small little-known college in Northern Vermont near the fabled "Northeast Kingdom," where he will teach a low-residency symposium to wannabe novelists. Jake is miserable. Almost all his students are forgettable—except for one. Haughty, arrogant, and conceited Evan Parker thinks he has conceived a plot that is so exceptional, so explosive, so much of a pager-turner that it will not only be a No. 1 bestseller, but also a hit movie. And Evan will be world-famous. All he has to do is write it. Evan is guardedly evasive and highly secretive about this sure-thing winner, sharing only a few of the opening pages and telling no one the plot. At some point, Evan shares with Jake the gist of the plot, and Jake realizes that all the braggadocio is warranted. There has never been a novel like the one Evan has conceived. That sends Jake into a tailspin of gloom.

Fast forward a few years. Jake learns quite by accident that his former student has died. And he never wrote the novel. That amazing plot is still out there in the universe, waiting for an author to turn it into a book. Feeling only a little remorse and a few twinges of guilt about stealing his student's brilliant idea, Jake writes the book. It's titled "Crib," and it is indeed a runaway bestseller with Steven Spielberg signing on to make the movie of the book. Oprah chooses it for her book club. Jake's life is now everything he ever hoped it would be. And then it gets better. He's a guest on a radio show in Seattle, and the woman who booked him on it is gorgeous and is flirting with him! Jake and Anna hit it off quickly, and she moves to New York City where they happily live together and soon marry.

Life is perfect, right? No. Because while he was Seattle, Jake received the first (of what would be many) threatening emails. It said: "You are a thief." It was signed [email protected]. And so it begins. Someone out there knows that Jake stole the story idea, and that someone wants him to pay for his blatant, unabashed thievery. Jake is terrified. His only way out, in his mind, is to lie about what he did.

Korelitz gives lots of clues all along the way. Even I—who rarely figure out whodunit—could figure out this one, but the big plot twist at the end I didn't see coming until right before it happened. Many of the clues are literary, which is so much fun for avid readers. Pay attention in particular to the novels "Housekeeping," by Marilynne Robinson and "The Talented Mr. Ripley," by Patricia Highsmith. (Even if you haven't read these books, Korelitz eventually explains the clues from the these acclaimed novels, but if you have read them, you are more likely to figure out things sooner.)

"The Plot" is also two novels in one. Interposed with Jake's story of writing "Crib" is the novel "Crib," excerpted in several-page increments throughout the book. (And it IS a genius plot!)

This is an intense page-turner with an electrifying plot twist and a horrifying ending. But wait! There's more! The story continues in "The Sequel."

This is a profound book, albeit highly disturbing, about the love and conflict, addictions and deceptions that bind together families who are struggling to survive on very little money, very little education, and very few community resources. These are people who are truly on the forgotten fringes of society.

Written by American Book Award winner Ocean Vuong, this is the story of Hai (pronounced "Hi"), a 19-year-old Vietnamese-American living in the dying, post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut. It's September 2009. Hai is lost. He has lost his sense of self and rightness. His short life has been built on lies and drugs. And now he has seemingly come to the end after telling his beloved mother a whopper of a lie that is so big, so glorious that she has found real happiness for the first time in a long time. But what he told her isn't true. So Hai does the only thing he can think to do: Kill himself.

Just as he is about to jump off a railroad bridge into a swirling, powerful river, an 82-year-old woman living in deep poverty and neglect in the shadow of that bridge, screams at him to stop. Miraculously, he hears her and obeys her. And then she takes him in…for good. Her name is Grazina Vitkus, a widow of Lithuanian descent and the mother of two adult children from whom she is quite distant. She is suffering from advanced dementia. Because her house is so dilapidated and in such a run-down and chemically toxic area, no live-in nurse will stay long. Hai takes on that role. But money is scarce, so he gets a job at a fast-food restaurant called HomeMarket, thanks to his autistic cousin Sony who also works there. It is here in a restaurant that serves Thanksgiving dinner foods year round that Hai is fully embraced into a caring community for the first time. It is also here that he finds order, consistency, and discipline for the first time. But the big lie he told his mother and his continued dependence on drugs taints his new life with desperation and despondency as he desperately searches for a second chance.

This is a provocative and haunting work of literary fiction that is not only unsettling, but also emotionally searing. It is a dark and difficult book to read because the characters' lives are so devastating. Even though there is a small sense of redemption and hope, the ending is just as sad and shattering as the rest of the book. Still, it's an important novel with a profound and relevant message.

Anne Tyler is one of my all-time favorite authors. If she writes it, I read it. There is just something magical about every book she has written, and this latest book—No. 25, which is just as special as those that precede it—was published when she was 83 years old. The girl's still got it!

The book opens when the lead character, Gail Baines, a 61-year-old assistant headmistress at a posh private school in Baltimore, is summarily let go instead of being promoted after her boss, the headmistress, decides to retire. This just happens to be the day before Gail's only daughter, Debbie, is getting married. Gail flees the school building in confusion and embarrassment and soon after arriving home, her ex-husband, Max, who is a kind of human hurricane, unexpectedly appears on her doorstep from his home in Delaware. He is asking to spend the wedding weekend in her house, along with an elderly foster cat for which he is caring. And even though he is the father of the bride, he has no suit—only a rumpled sport coat. As they are preparing for the imminent rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, Debbie drops in with shocking news—news that could very well derail the wedding the next day.

The novel is told in three parts—the day before the wedding, the day of the wedding, and the day after the wedding. But this is so much more than a wedding story. We find out Gail's complicated backstory and secrets of her past that she has confided to no one, including the real cause of her divorce from Max.

This is a story about love, especially married love, and all that makes it work—or not. Like all Anne Tyler novels, it is brilliantly told through the lives of the quirky, colorful characters. The plot is minimal—just enough to nudge it along bit by bit with a delightfully happy ending. Do pay attention to the mentions of wristwatches and the marvelous symbolism of time—past, present, and future.

This is a charming summer read filled with solid life advice and remarkable insight into the our human foibles and fears, while parts of it are laugh-out-loud funny. It is witty, wise, and wonderful.

This book, just like the two in the Century Trilogy series that precede it, is a solid history lesson complete with well-known and obscure factual details embedded in a delicious soap-opera story of love and sex, revenge and intrigue, regret and hope. Even at more than 1,100 pages, it's an all-consuming read!

The third in author Ken Follett's massive, epic history of the 20th century, this volume covers 1961 to 1989 with an epilogue dated November 4, 2008, the date of Barack Obama's election as president. I thought this book was the best of the three, but that might be because I lived through this time period and remember almost all the events.

The reason this series works so well and is so compellingly readable is that the history is told from the perspective of key characters who are loosely connected to one another. And these characters are placed all over the world—from the United States to Great Britain to Germany (East and West) to the Soviet Union to Cuba. They are rock 'n roll stars, CIA agents, close aides to the top Soviet officials, leading U.S. government employees, Stasi secret police, TV and newspaper journalists, and more, which makes their perspective seem like an insider point of view.

The book opens on a rainy Monday in 1961 when Rebecca Hoffman, a teacher who is married and lives in East Berlin, receives a terrifying order to report to the Stasi, the East German secret police. After she learns that the Stasi has intimately spied on her and her extended family for years, Rebecca makes an impassioned decision to escape over the Berlin Wall. And from there the story catapults into a fast-moving chronicle of life around the world at a volatile time when everything seemed to change—and quickly. From John F. Kennedy's presidency and womanizing to Martin Luther King's quest for civil rights to Robert Kennedy's tragic run for the presidency to the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Strap on your reading chair's seatbelt and get ready for a wild and fascinating literary ride.

This is a compelling, can't-turn-the-pages-fast-enough novel, but it's definitely pop fiction—not literary fiction. It's a perfect vacation read when you want a long book to last the duration of the trip.

And the ending? Let's just say there were tears…quite a few. It's wonderful.

Advice No. 1: Follett helpfully provides a cast of characters arranged by country and then family. Bookmark it. Even with the Kindle X-ray feature, I referred to this list frequently in the early chapters of the book. There are so many characters, and the scenes shift quickly so this list is indispensable.

Advice No. 2: While the books in the Century Trilogy can be read independently, it's probably best to read them in order, beginning with "Fall of Giants" and followed by "Winter of the World" and then "Edge of Eternity." Why? There is continuity in the stories of the characters and their descendants so it's best to read from the beginning to avoid inadvertent spoilers.

Imaginatively written by Alice Hoffman, this is the multilayered story of a house and the surrounding farmland located on the outer reaches of Cape Cod and its many occupants over the years. The house was first constructed in the 1700s when Massachusetts was occupied by the British, and each chapter moves ahead in time to the next family, all of whom live in what becomes known as Blackbird House.

Although this is a novel, it reads like a collection of closely interwoven short stories with each one of the 12 chapters building toward the next to catapult the novel forward in both time and plot.

Some of the characters we meet include:
• The Hadley Family opens the novel when John builds the house for his beloved wife Coral and their two sons, Vincent and Isaac. John is a fisherman, but the British occupation forbids him from pursuing his trade. If he is captured fishing on the open water of the ocean, he'll be imprisoned in England. But his family needs to eat.

• Ruth Blackbird Hill teeters on the edge of insanity when she loses her home to a ravaging fire, choosing to live without shelter on the beach in all seasons, accompanied only by her cows and her red boots. Kind women in the village intervene, and Ruth's life changes when they bring her to the farm that Lysander purchased from the Hadleys.

• Two sisters, Violet and Huley, live with their widowed father in the house. Huley is beautiful. Violet is disfigured with a large violet-shaped and violet-colored birthmark on her face. One day a professor from Boston comes to the village to investigate a sighting of a sea monster, and the girls' lives change forever.

• It's 1969, and teenage Maya's hippie parents have bought the old house that doesn't even have proper plumbing. In the winter, they have to use the outhouse. In the winter! Her parents live in a bubble by themselves, leaving Maya and her brother almost abandoned. It is only far later in her life that Maya comes to appreciate and better understand the love her parents had for each other.

• The last two chapters feature the same set of characters, set about 25 years apart. Emma is seven years old and has successfully battled leukemia when her parents impulsively buy Blackbird House as a summer escape. What happens that first summer is both joyful and heartbreaking. Fast forward to Emma's 30th birthday when her parents gift her the house. She returns on Midsummer's Night, a time when you become who it is you really are.

At just 250 pages, this is a short, character-driven novel that has a powerful message about love and family and the importance of community. Symbols abound and are woven through every chapter in some form—from water and fire and earth to blackbirds, including a white blackbird in the flock, and the color red.

Told with candor and compassion, this is a fierce but also lyrical and insightful tale.

If you're a James McBride fan, this is a must-read book. If you haven't yet treated yourself to this award-winning author's novels, don't read this memoir of his life and his mother's life quite yet. I've only read two of his novels—"Deacon King Kong" and "The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store"—but it's fascinating to see how the seed of some of his story ideas came from his mother's storied and remarkable past. Read a novel or two or three first and then treat yourself to this masterful memoir.

James McBride is the eighth of 12 children born to a White woman and a Black father. His father, Andrew Dennis McBride, died before James's birth. His mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, remarried several years later to another Black man named Hunter Jordan; the couple had four children, but most importantly, Mr. Jordan treated the McBride kids as his own. Lots of love to go around. McBride loved Hunter Jordan dearly and thought of him as his father.

Ruth was not only a White woman living in a Black world in a time when society mightily disapproved of this, but also she was the daughter of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. In addition to regularly sexually abusing her, her father was cruel and vindictive. Ruth ran away from her Suffolk, Virginia home on day after her high school graduation, and when she married a Black man, her family declared her dead to them. They sat shiva for her. She found solace in the Christian church, something that held her up after the tragic loss of her two husbands.

Discerning his mother's life story was a difficult, years-long project for James McBride. Ruth was a very private person and saw no need to dredge up the past. But James was insistent. As he says, "It took many years to find out who she was, partly because I never knew who I was."

This memoir switches chapter-by-chapter between Ruth's life story and James's life story when he grew up poor in Brooklyn and Queens with little money, little food, and sleeping four to a bed. Some of the stories—especially Ruth's—are so astonishing as to feel made-up, but it's all true. James truly did come from two worlds—one White, one Black—and this has greatly informed and influenced his writing. Even though he was brought up a Christian, he says he has a Jewish soul inherited from his mother.

McBride's thoughts and ruminations on race and the struggles he had with his racial identity are candid, but also heartbreaking, and form the backbone of this brilliant memoir. His mother truly was an extraordinary woman, raising 12 children in poverty. She enforced strict rules and focused on their education. It paid off. Two became medical doctors, one a psychologist, one an Ivy League college professor, one a registered nurse and midwife, one a chemistry researcher, one a medical practice office manager, one a computer consultant, and two teachers. And James McBride himself is not only an accomplished musician, but also the 2013 winner of the National Book Award for "The Good Lord Bird."

This is a fascinating, almost mesmerizing book that reads more like a novel than nonfiction. It is filled with sincere, forthright, and brutally honest revelations that truly capture their lives—the good, the bad, and the ugly. It takes a lot of courage to be this truthful.

The meaning of the book's title? When he was little, James asked his mother the color of God's spirit. "Oh boy…God's not black. He's not white. He's a spirit," his mother told him. "What color is God's spirit?" asked James. "It doesn't have a color," she said. "God is the color of water. Water doesn't have a color."

This is one of those delicious mystery/thrillers that is unputdownable while you're reading it (or more likely devouring it), but chances are you won't remember it weeks or months later. It's the equivalent of literary dessert. Oh, so tasty!

Written by Alafair Burke, this is the story of three best friends, the secrets they closely guard and the lies they tell each other and themselves until their lives implode after a murder and they are forced to face the truth—no matter how difficult that truth may be.

It's summer and rich girl Kelsey Ellis invites her besties Lauren Berry and May Hanover to join her for a week in the Hamptons in a home she has rented on the bay. Kelsey works for her very controlling father in the sprawling and highly successful family real estate business in Boston. Lauren is a classical musician and the director of the Houston Symphony. May is a new professor of law at Fordham University, having just left the Manhattan district attorney's office. All three have endured being socially "canceled" after three completely unrelated, embarrassing, and highly public events that diminished their professional and personal lives. Now they are off for a bit of R&R in the tony Hamptons.

The first night together, they go to Sag Harbor for drinks with Lauren driving. She spots a primo parking space and patiently waits while the driver in the huge pickup holding the space takes his sweet time pulling out. Just as he does and before Lauren can scoot into the space, it is taken by another couple. When they get out of their car, they turn to the three women and gloat. Seriously gloat. Well, that's maddening! This becomes the main topic of conversation over drinks, and they decide to write notes to the driver. It's fun. It's harmless. And the notes get stuffed into a purse. The note Kelsey writes says, "He's cheating. He always does." Unbeknownst to Lauren and May, Kelsey goes one step further, tucking the note under the wipers of the car. It's just a harmless prank that is payback for stealing the parking space!

The weekend is fun and relaxing until the driver of that car turns up missing, and Kelsey, Lauren, and May are targeted as suspects by the police. What started as a silly joke quickly spirals out of their control. They spin elaborate lies—so many lies. They guard deeply-held secrets—so many secrets. And the plot twists and turns, keeping the reader guessing until the end.

This is an ideal vacation book—fast and easy to read and totally riveting.

Local Souls
By Allan Gurganus

Imagine a small Southern town where everyone knows each other and on the surface, it's a beatific, innocent place. A visitor might look around this town, named Falls, North Carolina, and see happily married couples, successful children, thriving businesses, and churches of every denomination. Okay, now scratch the surface. What do you see? Everything isn't as perfect as it seems. That is the subject of these three loosely connected novellas by Allan Gurganus.

Each story focuses on characters who have a deep yearning to form a connection with others.

• "Fear Not": When Susan was 14 years old her father accidentally died in a horrific, very public way at the hands of his lifelong best friend, Dennis, who is also Susan's godfather. Dennis, the married father of three, is wracked with guilt—just consumed with it. Susan is grieving. Her mother has checked out mentally having witnessed her husband's death and takes to her bed. Dennis spends a lot of time alone with Susan, and before you know it, he gets Susan pregnant—and she's only 14. What happens to her in the ensuing years is the soul of this heart wrenching story.

• "Saints Have Mothers": Caitlin Mulray is a bit much. She is a high school junior who is perfect. And I mean perfect: Kind to everyone (and she's a teenage girl!), brilliant, musical, talented in every possible way, and gorgeous. She is also compassionate, working tirelessly with and for those who have less. The summer before her senior year, she goes to Africa to teach. While she is there, something horrific happens that sends her mother reeling, as well as her father and stepmother in California, her twin 11-year-old brothers, and basically the entire town of Falls, North Carolina. She is, after all, their golden girl. This melodramatic novella is written in the first person by Caitlin's less-than-perfect mother, Jean, who is having an identity crisis all her own. It's a difficult story to enjoy because Caitlin and Jean are tough characters to like.

• "Decoy": Bill Mabry has a bad heart—so bad that it was diagnosed as a ticking time bomb when he was just a child. But the small town of Falls, North Carolina has one of its own as the favorite physician, and Doc has sworn to care for Bill with great care and keep him alive. Told in the first person from Bill's point of view, this is a love letter to Doc and life in a small town. All is well, almost idyllic, until tragedy strikes Falls when the normally placid river overflows its banks after a hurricane, causing death and destruction.

This is a slow read. Yes, the stories frequently drag, getting bogged down in mindless details. But it's more than that. There is something about the writing that makes it difficult to read at times. Hence, three stars.

Oh, wow! This book gave me goosebumps. Quite simply, it's a masterpiece.

Brilliantly and imaginatively written by Percival Everett, this is the other side of Mark Twain's 1885 novel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." It is a treatise on the inherent evils of slavery, the significance of abiding friendship and romantic love, and the deeply human need to be respected and free. It rightly won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2024 National Book Award.

In Twain's novel, Huck frequently goes off on adventures, leaving Jim alone, mostly to tend the raft and canoe, their mode of transportation as they both escape their former lives as they float down the Mississippi River. What was Jim doing all that time when he was left alone? Everett has reimagined "Huck Finn" to tell Jim's side of the story, and it's a story that is so compelling, so enthralling, so mesmerizing that you likely will stay up long past your bedtime to read just one more chapter.

Mark Twain portrays Jim as a befuddled, ignorant Black man, liberally using a much harsher and derogatory epithet than "Black man." In Percival Everett's book, Jim is an educated, erudite man who can read and write. He expounds complex philosophical ideas. He speaks English properly, as do all the slaves, except in the presence of White people when he speaks in a put-on Southern dialect common to slaves. They call it slave language. But Jim is trapped as a slave, until he escapes Miss Watson. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has been abused by his no-good father one time too many, and he, too, escapes, leaving an ingenious trail so the townspeople will think he was murdered. The two serendipitously find each other on a deserted island in the Mississippi. Everett sticks fairly close—but not entirely—to Twain's story of Huck and Jim's adventures. In this book we see a whole new side of Jim, as he cares for and protects Huck, who is, after all, just a child.

About two-thirds of the way through "James," which is the beginning of Part II, Everett bids farewell to Twain's "Huck Finn" and strikes out on his own in a page-turning story that is riveting and remarkable and filled with surprises—especially one stunner. (No spoilers here!) Everett wisely abandons Twain's version when it got to be silly and farfetched as Huck and Tom Sawyer try to rescue Jim when he was captured as a runaway on the Phelps family's plantation. This second part of "James" is the strongest and most electrifying part of the book.

This is a fast-paced novel that is more plot than philosophy, but taken as a whole it is one of the most powerful and profound novels I have ever read. Most notably, Everett, unlike Twain, treats slavery as the violent, bloody, abusive, and inhumane institution it was.

And the ending? I will only say it was amazing. It's the best ending, albeit unexpected, I could ever have imagined.

"James" is truly an extraordinary novel with sophisticated storytelling that is provocative, haunting, and triumphant. Read it.

Just a thought: Consider reading (or rereading) "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" before reading "James." I did this, and had I not, I wouldn't have appreciated or even understood not only certain plot turns, but also many subtle references. That said, because "James" does veer from Twain's novel, it's not absolutely necessary to read "Huck" first.

Clear the decks! Order takeout for dinner. Turn off your phone. This is a riveting, unputdownable history-mystery by Fiona Davis that had me mesmerized from the first chapter. Yes, it's ChickLit, but it's intelligent ChickLit.

This is the story of two very different women, a priceless ancient Egyptian artifact, and the challenges smart women have endured in a man's world.

• Charlotte Cross is 60 years old and is the associate curator of the celebrated Department of Egyptian Art at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her specialty is Hathorkare, a rare female pharaoh whom most other Egyptologists deem unimportant. It's 1978, and Charlotte has a big secret she has been guarding for decades. In 1936 as an undergraduate college student, she worked on an archaeological dig in Egypt, making an extraordinary discovery—one that may have cursed her for life. Charlotte also fell in love, got pregnant, and then got married (big taboo then) until tragedy struck. What happened on that fateful night has haunted her ever since, but repressing the memories has left her a somewhat broken woman.

• Annie Jenkins, who is 19, has spent her life since her father died when she was five years old caring for her high-strung and unstable mother. Instead of college, she took on small jobs—waitressing and cleaning houses—to pay the bills for them because her mother refuses to work. Quite surprisingly, Annie receives an opportunity to work as the personal assistant to the revered and feared Diana Vreeland, the legendary former fashion editor of Vogue magazine. Now 75, she is chairing the annual Met Gala, which is a week away. Annie is thrilled because the Met is her favorite place to visit, and her favorite display is the fragment of a statue known as the Cerulean Queen in the Egyptian Art collection.

On the night of the Met Gala, everything goes wrong—terribly, terribly wrong, and the ramifications of what happens send Charlotte and Annie to Egypt to solve the mystery and the crime, a place Charlotte has deeply feared since she left in psychological tatters 42 years ago.

Very loosely based on historical fact and prodigiously researched, this richly imagined and captivating book is filled with unlikely twists and turns. With its superb pacing and page-turning suspense, I was spellbound!

This is a good book…a very good book. But…and there is a big "but" here: It took about 70 pages before it grabbed me and wouldn't let go. For many readers, this is way too long and too much effort to grasp that literary foothold. Stick with it! It's worth it.

Written by Essie Chambers, this is the story of Diamond Newberry, an obese Black 16-year-old girl living in abject poverty in the horribly racist fictional town of Swift River, Massachusetts. Her mother is White. Her father is Black. And after her father mysteriously disappears in the summer of 1980—although his shoes, wallet, and house keys are found, his body is not—Diamond is the only Black person in Swift River.

The poor mill town has a reprehensible history. One night in the early 1900s, forever known as "The Leaving," all the Black citizens fled before they could be violently expelled by the Whites, which was the original plan. Because they did so on their own terms—all at one time in one night—the White citizens were enraged. Only one Black person remained, a nurse named Clara. The town doctor desperately needed her as his nurse and housekeeper, but she was only allowed to stay in Swift River if she was off the streets by sundown or risk death. And just like that, Swift River became a "sundown town" like 10,000 others in the United States, mostly in the North and Midwest.

But 1987 marks seven years since Robert Newberry seemingly walked off the face of the Earth, and his wife, Annabelle, is determined to have him legally declared dead so she can collect the life insurance money. One day that summer, Diamond receives a letter from her father's cousin Lena in Woodville, Georgia, who wants to teach the child about her family and ancestors, including their Aunt Clara. The two secretly correspond, and Diamond learns her family's history of prejudice and abandonment, as well as love and caring. Meanwhile, Diamond is plotting her own leaving in a town where she endures overt racism and microaggressions from so many—from her classmates to the cops.

Some of the novel—and this is by far the best, most compelling part—is epistolary, told through letters from Lena and Clara. This is only a minor part of the overall book, but it is so good that I was wishing this was the story that was being told.

This is an intriguing and well-written novel that gets better and better with each page turn, a big improvement from the uneven and sometimes flat early chapters. It's a touching book about beginning again, focusing on the perils and regrets, as well as the expectations and dreams, of leaving and starting over and all that entails.

I laughed. I mean I really, really laughed out loud. Several times. And I cried. Oh, I needed a tissue or two. And not just once. This is just one of those books that hits every emotion.

And I loved it!

Written by Edward Kelsey Moore, this is the story of three longtime friends: Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean. They are now in their mid-fifties, but they met in high school in the 1960s and became inseparable. They were dubbed "The Supremes." One of their favorite places to go—then and now—is Earl's All-You-Can-Eat diner where lots of folks who live in the quiet little town of Plainview, Indiana also go. Good food, good gossip. But it's more than that. It's community, security, and solace.

And quite often, our three Supremes are the subject of that good gossip at Earl's, like it or not.
• Clarice, who is a superbly talented pianist, is married to Richmond, and Richmond has a very active love life—just not always with his wife. She has just about had it with him and his adulterous shenanigans. People are talking, and she is hurting.

• Barbara Jean, who was born to a single mother who had no idea who her daughter's father was, grew up in poverty but married Lester, a wealthy entrepreneur who loves and adores his beautiful wife. But years ago, their only son, Adam, tragically died when he was eight years old. After Lester dies, too, Barbara Jean suffers both losses terribly, drinking far too much while she pines for a long lost love who has suddenly returned to town.

• Odette is very happily married to James, but she has a few problems of her own. In addition to frequently seeing and talking to the ghost of her dead mother, Odette receives a scary health diagnosis that she tries to keep secret—until she can't.

Each of the three Supremes experiences great joys and great sorrows—just like in real life—and they are there for each other through it all, a testament to a friendship that has endured through the decades.

This is an engaging and captivating novel with colorful characters and often hilarious plot points. It is a little treasure and an absolute delight. Just like the dishes served at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat diner, this is a literary comfort food for the soul.

Just a note: When I bought this book, I thought it was ChickLit. It's not. Men: If you want to understand women better, read this book.

This is going to sound odd, but I didn't want to like this book. Why? I have only read two other Kristin Hannah books, and both of them played deeply with my emotions in a way I felt wasn't a fair way for an author to treat a reader. And, of course, this one did the same thing. But it is a good book! Very good. So many people—from my best friend to Bill Gates—highly recommended it, which is why I gave in and read it.

This is the fictional story of one young woman who served as an Army nurse from 1967 to 1969 in Vietnam, and her tale—of moving from insecurity and naivety to confidence and heroism—that is meant to be the story for every brave and patriotic woman who served in that conflict and then came home to a nation that was not only ungrateful, but also openly hostile.

Frances Grace McGrath, or as Frankie as she is better known, grew up in a wealthy and privileged home on Coronado Island, California. The beach was her front yard and earliest sandbox. Frankie and her beloved brother, Finley, were inseparable as children. After graduating from the Naval Academy, Finley is sent to Vietnam, earning the respect and admiration of his father. When Frankie is challenged by one of Finley's classmates to go, too, she does. She has just graduated from nursing school and knows there is a desperate need for combat nurses. While her parents are proud of Finley, they are horrified with Frankie. But she goes anyway, joining the Army Nurse Corps.

The novel, which is a rat-a-tat-tat of action and plot twists and turns, is the story of Frankie's experiences in Vietnam, the other nurses and doctors she befriends, her impassioned love affair, and her transformation from the "good girl debutante" to one who is independent, confident, and opinionated. There is tragedy. There are gruesome wounds. There is death. (So much death). Throughout it all, there is the constant, unrelenting brutality and violence of war.

After two tours of duty, Frankie comes home to parents who reject her and a country that betrays her. But just as she relied on her best buddies in Vietnam, Ethel and Barb, so she relies on them when she comes back to the United States, a changed woman with barely controlled rage, irrational mood swings, and inexplicable anger. "She'd gone to war a patriot and come home a pariah. 'How do I get back to who I was?'" And, of course, the answer is, no one who went to Vietnam can ever get back to who she (or he) was.

Bonus: The detailed descriptions of 1960s and 1970s fashion and music add a lot to the ambiance of the story.

And while readers will take an emotional beating reading this book (keep a box of tissues handy), it is a page-turner that is hard to put down. Wrenching as it may be, this provocative and haunting book is a testament to the brave women who put their own lives at risk to help save the men fighting in Vietnam.